Even if you have limited space and no equipment, there are ways to exercise in your student apartment. These simple exercises will work your entire body and won’t annoy your neighbours. You can do as many repetitions as you like, to make your workout match your current fitness level and fit into the time you have available.
1. Squat Combo
Target different muscles in your legs through a combination of squats. Start with narrow squats to tone your quads, then normal squats to target the glutes, and end with sumo squats for the hamstrings.
2. Squat Taps
Practise your balance with squat taps. Start with your feet together and squat down. Bring your leg out to the side, then behind you, and then stand back up. Repeat on the other side.
3. Reverse Lunge with Knee Drive
Step back into a reverse lunge. Then, instead of bringing your leg back to the starting position, raise your knee and then lunge back again. After doing a set on one leg, switch to the other side. You can do this with or without weights.
4. Curtsey Lunges
Another way to adapt a regular reverse lunge is to turn it into a curtsey lunge. This means stepping behind and to the side. Avoid lunging too far to the side — make sure your knees and shins remain vertical and keep your hips square.
5. Squat with a Standing Crunch
Do a regular squat but hold your hands behind your head. After you come up from the squat, twist and lift your leg to make your elbow and opposite knee meet. Change sides after each squat.
6. Squat Raises
A lower-intensity alternative to squat jumps is simply to raise up on your toes. For the biggest impact, imagine you’re going to jump and stop yourself at the last second.
7. Calf Raises
A move that looks simple but will have your muscles burning is calf raises. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and lift your heels off the ground. As you become stronger, don’t come all the way back down — instead, keep your heels off the ground at all times.
8. Arm Circles
An upper-body exercise to try is arm circles. Hold your arms out at shoulder height and move them in small circles. Keep your palms down as you do circles going forwards and flip your palms up for circles going backwards.
9. Chair Dips
Work your triceps with nothing more than a chair. Put your palms on the seat of the chair and stick your legs out in front of you with your heels pressed into the floor. Lower down until your upper arms are parallel to the seat and then push back up. Make sure your back is at a 90 degree angle with the seat at all times.
Simple exercises are great when you’re pressed for time, but you may find they become boring if they’re your only workout. To be able to mix things up, make a gym a priority when looking for student rentals. Barrie has the perfect housing at Arcadian Students. In addition to our fitness center, we have an outdoor basketball half court, giving you an extra option to stay active. Book a tour to see all our amenities for yourself.